Episode 1017 - 5 Chefs Compete
The seventeenth episode of Season 10 of Hell's Kitchen aired on FOX, on August 20, 2012. On that episode, the final five taught beauty pageant models how to cook, Italian Night dinner service was painful, and one of the most inconsistent chefs was eliminated. Intro While going back to the dorms, Dana admitted that while walking back after an elimination was depressing, they were all happy to Robyn go home as Justin said he had never been happier to see somebody go home. However, when Justin added on that he did not want to work with Robyn for a while, Dana pointed out that the men now knew what the red team had to go through with Robyn, while Christina was glad Clemenza was still around. Clemenza claimed that being nominated again lit a spark in his ass, and warned the rest of the chefs that he was going back with a vengeance, while Justin felt there were some strong competition in the final five and that he himself had to step it up. Individual challenge The next day, the final five came down to the kitchen where Ramsay decided to cook them chicken parmesan, which Clemenza liked. As Ramsay cooked the dish for the chefs, Dana was watching closely as there was no reason the former would cook them chicken parmesan, before wondering if it was a test, while Justin asked what Ramsay had in store. After, Ramsay gave the chefs the dish to taste, but Clemenza felt he could cook a better chicken parmesan than Ramsay could. Then, Ramsay announced that for their next challenge, the final five had to recreate the dish, which Justin got amped for, but because Ramsay felt the challenge would be too easy, he added on that they had to teach somebody how to cook, revealing the Cooking School Challenge in the process. However, Dana said that she loved teaching as Ramsay introduced them to their students, Ms. Teen USA winners. They were Kamie Crawford of 2010, Stevi Perry of 2008, Hilary Cruz of 2007, Katie Blair of 2006, and Allie Laforce of 2005. While Barbie immediately pushed her patience button, Justin called the Ms. Teen USA winners stunning before claiming he was not thinking anything wrong, and Dana felt the women were not dressed to cook. After, Ramsay told the final five that their student was the Ms. Teen USA across of them, they had to teach them how to recreate his chicken parmesan without touching any of the ingredients, and the pair that was the closest to his original dish was the winner. Each pair had 30 minutes to cook, but Barbie’s student Cruz did not know how to mince an onion, even asking if there was a machine to use. For Justin and Crawford, the former had no idea the latter had an entire chicken to break down, even fearing she would cut her finger off, while Christina was impressed how Blair was cutting her chicken down. While most of the pairs were cooking the marinara sauce and getting the chicken cooked, the pair of Barbie and Cruz were struggling to dice the onion, which Dana took notice of. With only ten minutes left, Barbie was getting anxious as it was Ramsay’s dish they were cooking, but was not ready to give up, while Crawford spat out a piece of greens. Near the end of the cooking, Cruz was starting to panic, but thanks to Barbie, everybody got their dishes cooked and plated on time. Christina and Blair were the first pair to have their dish judged, and immediately, the former noticed that their chicken breast was larger than Ramsay’s dish. After tasting the dish, Ramsay praised the chicken for being cooked perfectly, moist, and delicious, but wanted more marinara over mozzarella. Despite that, he deemed it a great start. For Justin and Crawford, their dish was praised for an impactful presentation, and a delicious sauce, but criticized for having a thick chicken. Then, Dana and Laforce’s attempt was praised for a beautiful presentation and a delicious sauce, but criticized for an overabundance of mozzarella, even though Dana argued that the cheese was the best part, and that there was no such thing as too much cheese. After, Barbie and Cruz went up, and their dish was praised for a near perfect marinara sauce, but while she was left confident in her chances, Clemenza was the final person up, and he was Italian. As Clemenza and Perry walked their dish up, the latter called him a great teacher, and Clemenza claimed that he had marinara sauce flowing through his vein. However, while Ramsay praised the chicken, he felt the marinara sauce needed to be blended down further as it tasted very clunky, although Clemenza argued that it was a classical attempt on marinara. After admitting how hard the decision was, Ramsay asked Cruz and Laforce to bring up their dishes again, and while Dana wondered who he would pick, she hoped for a tie with Barbie. However, Ramsay named Cruz’s dish the best, therefore Barbie won the challenge, and she was extremely proud of Cruz for doing well as the latter wanted to put winning a Hell’s Kitchen challenge on her resume. After the challenge, Ramsay praised Barbie for starting to shine more, but when the latter claimed that patience was a virtue, Dana bitterly asked Barbie if being mediocre throughout the competition was her strategy. Then, Ramsay announced that tomorrow night was Italian Night, exciting Clemenza. Reward Barbie was rewarded with an Italian inspired day which included lunch at Ado Ristorante and kayaking along the Venice canal, and Ramsay allowed her to pick one person to join. After Clemenza admitted that he did not want to spend time with Barbie on either a reward or a punishment, she picked Justin. Before leaving, Ramsay revealed that he was lending the two his brand-new Maserati convertible, and asked the two to bring it back in one piece. While Justin was surprised Barbie picked him for the reward, he felt they have bonded over the last couple of days. During the reward, Justin called Ramsay’s convertible sick, and during lunch, Antonio Mure presented the two with the restaurant’s signature pasta dish, with the two thoroughly enjoying it. During the kayaking trip, Barbie and Justin looked at the houses on the canal, with the latter feeling very relaxed and said that it was better than making pasta. Punishment The remaining chefs were punished by prepping for Italian Night, and during the punishment, an upset Christina hoped she could win a challenge soon, while Clemenza could not envision Barbie and Justin hanging out and Dana bitterly mocked Barbie’s comments from earlier. When Barbie and Justin walked by for their reward, Christina wondered if it was Barbie’s strategy all along, and while Dana felt Barbie and Justin were falling in love, Christina felt it was more of an alliance. Later, Clemenza claimed that a true Italian artist could make great pasta, but got annoyed when Christina and Dana struggled to roll out their dough, telling the two to crank harder. Then, Dana complained that she did not want to do prep work anymore as her whole body was hurting, with Clemenza starting to feel fatigued well, and wondering if it would be an all nighter. After, Dana yelled that she wanted it to end. Before service When Justin and Barbie came back from their reward, they irked the chefs with their description of their reward. Then, the two announced they would make dinner for everybody as Justin felt bad for them, and ended up making spaghetti. However, Dana and Christina were not thrilled about what they made pasta for the last six hours, Clemenza spat out his bite, and Justin got insulted as he hoped they would have at least enjoyed it. The next day, the final five began prepping for Italian Night, and not only did they have a brand-new menu to work with, it would also be the first time that season where one kitchen was serving the entire dining room. Clemenza said that this service was more important than any other as he claimed the Italian Stallion was coming, although Dana was concerned he was pounding the chicken too thin. However, Clemenza ignored Dana’s warnings, frustrating her as Mr. Italiano made the chicken breasts too big of portions, even telling Sous Chef Scott about them. That shocked Sous Chef Scott as none of the chicken were like that the day before, and angrily showing Clemenza his mess, he announced that half of their chicken was ruined. Dana was left angry as now she had barely any orders of chicken for that night, and whined that it was not cool. While Clemenza admitted to fucking up prep, he felt he was going to kick ass during dinner service. After prep, Ramsay had the final five lined up, and after reminding them about Italian Night, he warned them that there was nowhere to hide. After telling them to show him the heart of a champion, Ramsay asked James to open Hell’s Kitchen. Dinner service For Italian Night, the menu featured crab capellini, butternut squash risotto, and filet of beef with handmade cavatelli pasta. As service began, Ramsay urged Clemenza to shine the most that night, and the latter confidently told him to bring it the fuck on. Unfortunately, Clemenza could not recall the first order of appetizers as he did not pay attention, and an annoyed Christina told him to pull it together before telling him the order, two risottos and two flatbreads. When Christina noticed that Clemenza needed help on the flatbreads and was completely disorganized, she grabbed a cutting board to help, even warning him to step up or step off. Despite that, Clemenza got his flatbreads accepted, even though Ramsay had no idea how he could work disorganized and produce perfect food, and Barbie produced a delicious risotto with her making it her goal to make orders perfect. 40 minutes into service, Clemenza once again did not hear the callout, that due to speaking, and after Ramsay accused him of not being interested, Barbie got frustrated as Ramsay ordered Clemenza to call out the order himself. Then, Barbie sent up a risotto that had raw wine, no salt, and hard as a rock, with Justin calling it inexcusable as she cooked risottos in her life. After Ramsay accused Barbie of switching off and Clemenza of being in the shit, a frustrated Dana yelled that they should get a risotto right by their fourteenth service. When Barbie sent up the refire, Ramsay ordered the chefs to taste it again as that time, it had no salt and was raw, which Dana deemed disgusting as it looked like rice soup. Deciding to help, Clemenza jumped in to help Barbie on the risotto, but the two argued over when to send it up as she wanted it gone, but he felt it was too watery. Afterwards, Clemenza decided to let Barbie sink herself and sent up the liquid risotto that had an overly cheese taste, and after Ramsay called it an insult to Italy, and asked Barbie if she wanted to go home before warning her that she would be sent home if she made one more mistake. Barbie refused to go home, but Christina had no idea what the former was doing, even hearing the bombs go off. After, Barbie finally got the fourth attempt accepted, and a stream of appetizers left the kitchen. Now moving onto entrées, Dana was worried about trying to sear off the filets for the number of orders, but Ramsay discovered that one pan had burnt filet due to being on a high temperature, and Barbie called them black as night. While Dana admitted she should have thrown those filets out, Ramsay asked if she wanted to go home due to being out of control, before warning her to a grip. Then, Justin decided to take the lead on the kitchen as he refused to have Ramsay shut service down, and their first order of entrées were accepted. As Clemenza and Barbie continue to push out appetizers, Christina sent up burnt and bland spinach, which Justin knew Ramsay was big on, and the latter asked the final five what was happening with them. Deciding to regain focus, Christina got her refire accepted, even though Ramsay was sarcastically surprised to see her taste her food. One hour and a half into service, entrées were leaving to their appreciative diners, and there was only one order of appetizers left. Despite both Barbie and Clemenza confident they could do it, Ramsay wagered a hundred dollars that they would not get it correct. As predicted, Barbie was slow on cooking her final risotto, Clemenza picked the shrimp slowly, and Justin called it the most difficult thing he ever saw as there was a table waiting for food for a long time. After Barbie sent up her dishes, Ramsay discovered that she made capellini for two instead of one with little crab, accused her of not knowing what she was doing any more, he literally begged her to go home as he could not understand what the fuck was going on. Barbie promised to get the refire done in three minutes, but when Ramsay asked her to say something motivational, she let out a flat sorry, frustrating Dana as they had to wait for appetizers to finish. While the refire was accepted, Christina was embarrassed that this was the best the final five could do. After serving their final entrée, Ramsay commented that it was not the night he expected, before ordering them to clear down. Post-mortem When the final five were lined up, Ramsay said that although they had been on a long journey together, he did not expect a service where they were all off the mark that night on the verge of embarrassment. After admitting to being bitterly disappointed, Ramsay asked them to name one person for elimination. During deliberation, Christina was disappointed about her performance, but Dana told her to relax as she only made one mistake that night. At the dorms, Clemenza told Justin that Barbie was the worst performer of that night as she had to instruct her on the risottos every time and was not being heard, and while Justin admitted that he had the point, he still wanted Clemenza gone as he was sick of cleaning up his messes. In the bedroom, Christina wanted to vote for Clemenza, but Dana leaned more to Barbie as she disliked her, felt that she sucked that night, and reminded Christina of all the times they wanted her gone from the red team. In the living room, Justin asked Barbie what happened, but while the latter admitted to having a poor night, she felt Clemenza was in her way that night. Once everybody regrouped, Barbie voted for Clemenza, while the latter voted for the former. Then, the two argued about their poor risottos and Clemenza not being listened two, and the latter felt that he was in danger of going home on the one night he should have excelled on Italian Night. Then, Justin felt that calling Barbie out was very petty even though she bombed that night, but he called Clemenza a mess as Dana and Christina struggled on a final decision. Elimination When the final five came downstairs, Ramsay still expressed disappointment in that night’s service as he expected the best from them, and was further disappointed when Justin revealed that they failed to reach a consensus. After frustratingly asking for somebody to have the balls to have the truth, Dana revealed that it was between Barbie and Clemenza before they ran out of time. Deciding to hear from both, Barbie felt that she did not lose her passion, but Ramsay reminded her that she did not callback, showed no leadership, had no inspiration, and was in the weeds all night. While Barbie argued that she did not give up, Ramsay felt otherwise. Then, Ramsay said that it was the seventh time Clemenza was nominated, and out of his 50% of his stay, he had always been out in front of him. While Clemenza knew he had shining moments throughout the competition, he knew his performance that night was not great, but added on that he kept fighting. After listening to their pleas, Ramsay asked about the lack of synergy between the two, but while Barbie said that she could not trust Clemenza due to his disorganization, he reminded her about the risotto incident as the two continued to plead their cases. In the end, Clemenza was eliminated for his string of inconsistent performances, but Ramsay praised him for his effort. During his exit interview, Clemenza received a retrospective montage. After Clemenza left, Ramsay reminded the final four that they had a one in four chance of winning, and urged them to visualize themselves as the head chef in Las Vegas with a salary of $250,000 as there was a lot at stake. While being dismissed, Justin said that there were only three people in his way, and was really focused. Back at the dorms, the final four found champagne waiting for them, and Dana felt that the cash prize was in her reach as they toasted to their victory. Then, Dana noticed a note, and Justin read it out as Ramsay told the four that the best was yet to come. After, mysterious people came to them, much to everyone, especially Christina’s shock and excitement, and the episode ended in a cliffhanger. Ramsay gave no comment on Clemenza’s elimination, and he did not receive the coat hanging and portrait burning sequence. Category:Episodes Category:Season 10